1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connection adapter, an optical tomographic imaging apparatus, a program for executing an imaging method and a memory device for the program, in particular, a connection adapter that is used for an optical tomographic imaging apparatus for ophthalmological care or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
At present, an optical tomographic imaging apparatus of optical coherence tomography (OCT) utilizing the interference phenomenon of multi-wavelength beams is capable of capturing a tomographic image of a sample with high resolution. Hereinafter, this is referred to as an OCT apparatus.
According to the OCT apparatus described above, a sample is irradiated with measuring beams that is low coherent light, and backscattered light from a sample can be measured by using an interference system.
In addition, the OCT apparatus is capable of capturing a tomographic image with high resolution by scanning the sample with the measuring beams.
Therefore, the OCT apparatus is capable of imaging a tomographic image of a retina of a fundus in a subject eye with high resolution, and hence it is widely used for ophthalmological diagnosis of a retina or the like.
At present, various improvements and refinements of the OCT apparatus have been continuously made, but the apparatus is still expensive and big.
Therefore, the problems of installation space, installing cost, profitability thereof, and the like keep the use of the OCT apparatus only in large hospitals and by some general practitioners.
Conventionally, concerning such OCT apparatus, there is known an OCT apparatus constituting a combination apparatus in which a camera for imaging a two-dimensional image is combined with a tomographic image formation apparatus that is capable of imaging a tomographic image of a fundus and is also capable of imaging a surface image of the fundus by switching with switching means.
Further recently, concerning the OCT apparatus constituting the combination apparatus as described above, there is proposed a fundus observation apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-181631, in which both a tomographic image and a surface image of a fundus can be captured simultaneously.
This apparatus includes a fundus camera unit and an OCT unit, and the OCT unit can be connected to an optical connector of the fundus camera unit.
As described above, the OCT apparatus is desired to have a small installation space and high profitability for general practitioners to use.
The above-mentioned apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-181631 is capable of capturing both a tomographic image and a surface image of a fundus simultaneously. However, the fundus camera and the OCT apparatus constitute individual units that are connected to each other via the optical connector. Therefore, the apparatus does not always satisfy the requirement for a small installation space.